Actor James Gandolfini dies in Italy at age 51

LOS ANGELES -- James Gandolfini, whose
portrayal of a brutal, emotionally delicate crime boss in HBO's "The
Sopranos" was the brilliant center of one of TV's greatest drama series
and turned the mobster stereotype on its head, died Wednesday in Italy.
He was 51.

Gandolfini died while vacationing in Rome, the cable
channel and Gandolfini's managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders said
in a joint statement. No cause of death was given.

"He was a
genius," said "Sopranos" creator David Chase. "Anyone who saw him even
in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the
greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided
in those sad eyes."

Gandolfini, who won three Emmy Awards for his
role as Tony Soprano, worked steadily in film and on stage after the
series ended. He earned a 2009 Tony Award nomination for his role in the
celebrated production of "God of Carnage."

Gandolfini reigned as Bacchus 39 at Mardi Gras in 2007. He also shot the 2010 film "Welcome to the Rileys" and 2012's "Killing Them Softly" in town.

"Our hearts are
shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of
our family for many years and we are all grieving," said Armstrong and
Sanders.

HBO called the actor a "special man, a great talent, but
more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone, no
matter their title or position, with equal respect." The channel
expressed sympathy for his wife and children.

Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore on the HBO drama, said he was shocked and heartbroken.

"Fifty-one and leaves a kid -- he was newly married. His son is fatherless now. ... It's way too young," Gannascoli said.

Gandolfini
and his wife, Deborah, who were married in 2008, have a daughter,
Liliana, born last year, HBO said. The actor and his former wife, Marcy,
have a teenage son, Michael.

Gandolfini's performance in "The
Sopranos" was indelible and career-making, but he refused to be
stereotyped as the bulky mobster who was a therapy patient, family man
and apparently effortless killer.

In a December 2012 interview
with The Associated Press -- a rare sit-down for the star who avoided the
spotlight -- he was upbeat about a slew of smaller roles following the
breathtaking blackout ending in 2007 of "The Sopranos."

"I'm much
more comfortable doing smaller things," Gandolfini said in the
interview. "I like them. I like the way they're shot; they're shot
quickly. It's all about the scripts -- that's what it is -- and I'm
getting some interesting little scripts."

He played Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta in Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden hunt
docudrama "Zero Dark Thirty." He worked with Chase for the '60s period
drama "Not Fade Away," in which he played the old-school father of a
wannabe rocker. And in Andrew Dominick's crime flick "Killing Them
Softly," he played an aged, washed-up hit man.

There were comedies
such as the political satire "In the Loop," and the heartwarming drama
"Welcome to the Rileys," which co-starred Kristen Stewart. He voiced the
Wild Thing Carol in "Where the Wild Things Are" and made a rare return
to the TV screen with the HBO film "Cinemate Verite."

He was
mourned online by a flood of celebrity comments. "The great James
Gandolfini passed away today. Only 51. I can't believe it," Bette Midler
posted on her Twitter account.

Deploying his unsought clout
as a star, Gandolfini produced (though only sparingly appeared in) a
pair documentaries for HBO focused on a cause he held dear: veterans
affairs.

"Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" (2007) profiled 10
soldiers and Marines who had cheated death but continued to wage
personal battles long after their military service had ended. Four years
later, "Wartorn: 1861-2010" charted victims of post-traumatic stress
disorder from the U.S. invasion of Iraq all the way back to the Civil
War.

"Do I think a documentary is going to change the world?"
Gandolfini said with characteristic modesty during an interview about
the latter film. "No, but I think there will be individuals who will
learn things from it, so that's enough."

His final projects
included the film "Animal Rescue," directed by Michael R. Roskam and
written by Dennis Lehane, which has been shot and is expected to be
released next year. He also had agreed to star in a seven-part limited
series for HBO, "Criminal Justice," based on a BBC show. He had shot a
pilot for an early iteration of the project.

Gandolfini grew up in
Park Ridge, N.J., the son of a building maintenance chief at a Catholic
school and a high school lunch lady.

While Tony Soprano was a
larger-than-life figure, Gandolfini was exceptionally modest and
obsessive -- he described himself as "a 260-pound Woody Allen."

In past interviews, his cast mates had far more glowing descriptions to offer.

"I
had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali,"
said Lorraine Bracco, who, as Tony's psychiatrist Dr. Melfi, went
one-on-one with Gandolfini in their penetrating therapy scenes. "He
cares what he does, and does it extremely well."

After earning a
degree in communications from Rutgers University, Gandolfini moved to
New York, where he worked as a bartender, bouncer and nightclub manager.
When he was 25, he joined a friend of a friend in an acting class,
which he continued for several years.

Gandolfini's first big break
was a Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" where he played
Steve, one of Stanley Kowalski's poker buddies. His film debut was in
Sidney Lumet's "A Stranger Among Us" (1992).

Director Tony Scott,
who killed himself in August 2012, had praised Gandolfini's talent for
fusing violence with charisma -- which he would perfect in Tony Soprano.

Gandolfini
played a tough guy in Tony Scott's 1993 film "True Romance" who beat
Patricia Arquette's character to a pulp while offering such jarring,
flirtatious banter as, "You got a lot of heart kid."

Scott called Gandolfini "a unique combination of charming and dangerous."

In
his early career, Gandolfini had supporting roles in "Crimson Tide"
(1995), "Get Shorty" (1995), "The Juror" (1996), Lumet's "Night Falls on
Manhattan" (1997), "She's So Lovely" (1997), "Fallen" (1998) and "A
Civil Action" (1998). But it was "True Romance" that piqued the interest
of Chase.

He shared a Broadway stage with Jeff Daniels, Hope
Davis and Marcia Gay Harden in "God of Carnage" when he received the
best-actor Tony nod. He was in "On the Waterfront" with David Morse and
was an understudy in a revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1992
starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange.

In his 2012 AP interview,
Gandolfini said he gravitated to acting as a release, a way to get rid
of anger. "I don't know what exactly I was angry about," he said.

"I
try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this
point," he said last year. "I'm getting older, too. I don't want to be
beating people up as much. I don't want to be beating women up and those
kinds of things that much anymore."